Dial-up Internet Provider Questions?

[Buffalo]

I have an old computer, given to me a couple of years ago by my neighbor (Windows 98). My provider is AOL Dial-up, 9. 0 Security Edition LE.



Lately, their service is getting worse. In the last few days, I've lost a number of long posts because of being disconnected by AOL. They charge $20. 00/ month & I've just been notified that the price is increasing 20% to $25. 00/ month. So, the price is increasing & the service is decreasing!!!



I tried to complain to them but, they don't give you enough space to lodge a proper complaint (245 characters). I'm really fed up with them.



I was at Radio Shack, yesterday, & picked up a CD from Netzero. Their dial-up is $9. 95/ month & their HiSpeed (5 times faster) is $14. 95/ month.



Do any of you have any experience with Netzero or any of the other cheaper providers (Netscape, etc)? Are they better than AOL?



Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm pretty much a novice to the computer world.



Thanks.



Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[Rescue Ram]

Years ago, (1988-1995 or so), we used Prodigy. They had excellent service at that time. I am not sure if they still exsist or not. Infact, we didnt have screen names, but pre-assigned ID #'s. XTWB48A was mine. Wow, that was a while ago...

 

[rivercat]

NET ZERO- works good for me unless its raining for some reason. If its raining my nomal 50. 6 k drops to 20 something k and its hard to do anything at that speed.

 

[ALanglinais]

Get a broadband connection... example is a cable modem, adsl or fiber. The price is the same and many if not all of the providers in your region will offer combined services which will include phone,tv and internet. The connnection you have is "on" when you have to send or receive something, and "off" when you are not sending or receiving something. After a period of time "AOL" may disconnect you after a period of non-use and this may explain your connection problems. Dial up connection, which is the connection you have, is not the preferred connection for the current internet. AOL offers a high speed connection which incorporates broad band. This is a short answer to a huge question. I would suggest you look into other solutions other than a free service or AOL.

 

[DRAG DIESEL]

Hey Joe!



My old man has netzero, seems to work ok. I would spend my 25 bucks on sbc/yahoo dsl conncetion. It should keep you in the price range you are now.



~jake

 

[rubberneck]

I asked this once before, but will throw it out again to see if there are any other members with experience. I can not get cable or dsl where i live. i can get fire to wire, but they only had about 200k/sec, and it was $99/month plus install. Not to mention, they wouldn't even come out and check signal strength until i signed some big contract, so i think their company sucks. It seems (unless there is something else i have not heard of) that i have only 1 option for high speed, that is direcway. Does anybody have experience with them? i have heard about service issues and lag time due to the fact that every time you click a link, it has to send the request to the satelite and then retrieve the data. How bad is this "netlag" for lack of a better word. I really dont want dial up, but i dont want to spend the cash for the direcway install and then hate it. thanks phil

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Just about anything is better than AOL. I rarely use dial up any more (only when I am in remote areas where my cell phone doesn't have 1x data coverage) but when I did I used Earthlink. I have had many clients use them over the years and were very happy with their service. Can't give you more recent information however. Do you have a seperate phone line for your computer? If you do there's a good chance that your paying as much or more for your dial up connection than a dsl connection would cost you (if it's available in your area). Once you use a high speed connection you'll never go back to dial up.



rubberneck - direcway is a viable solution if you have no other choice. I have had several clients use direcway and were happy with it compared to the dial up connection they were on. There is a lag on each request but it's nothing like the speed of dial up. Try finding a local direcway provider (you'll have to find one to come out and do the install - you can't install them yourself) and see if you can go to their location and try it out to see if you like it first.

 

[rubberneck]

Steve, thanks for the info, i will do that. So i cant install myself. that sucks. my house is prewired, so i guess the install guy will make an easy buck that day. thanks Phil

 

[bigkid59]

I used Juno a while, but when they wanted to increase the monthly charge from $9. 95 to about $28. 00 I left. There reasoning for the price increase was that I was putting in too many hours on their "unlimited service"! I guess they have a different definition of "unlimited".

I have been on Earthlink for several years now and am satisfied with their service. If you do go with Earthlink you can get a discount if you are a member of AARP.

I set my girlfriend up on Netscape. It works well and I think it is a real bargain at $9. 95 a month. No problems yet in about a year of use and the connection works well.

As far as AOL, I wouldn't use them myself because of all the complaints I hear and read about them. I have several friends who have been through the AOL experience and not one of them is happy with the service and treatment they received. I can't think of any of them that is still on AOL.

 

[rubberneck]

I would go without internet at the house before i would ever sign back up with AOL

 

[donnier]

Have you noticed that in the commercial for Net Zero, they compare themselves to AOL and not MSN?



MSN is another option to consider for dialup.



I had Prodigy for a while too, but I think they were bought out by SBC.

 

[Buffalo]

Thanks for all the Great replys.



I've heard that "getting out" of AOL can be a problem.

Have any of you done this & did you have any problems?



Did you get a replacement "provider" before getting out of AOL or, did you get out of AOL & then find a new provider? Which is the safest approach?



Any of you have any experience with "mailaka.net"?



Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks, again.



Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[mberry]

I will have to echo a couple of other recommendations here. Earthlink. NetZero "High Speed" is a joke and uses older technology. Basically what it does is download into your cache is every link on every webpage you look at. That in and of itself slows down your download speed for web pages. Earthlink is as good as any others for the price. I also would rather go without than have AOL. I used to have Prodigy also, but they were purchased by AOL. I used to have AOL also and when they stole money from a poor college student, "me", I quit using them.



As to your "provider" question, I would purchase the new service and get it fully working before dumping AOL completely. Go into AOL and email yourself all of your contacts before stopping the service. I would also send out an email to your contacts letting them know what your new email address is.



It's your call on what to do as usual.

 

[RandyHamilton]

Just about anything is better than AOL. I rarely use dial up any more (only when I am in remote areas where my cell phone doesn't have 1x data coverage) but when I did I used Earthlink. I have had many clients use them over the years and were very happy with their service. Can't give you more recent information however. Do you have a seperate phone line for your computer? If you do there's a good chance that your paying as much or more for your dial up connection than a dsl connection would cost you (if it's available in your area). Once you use a high speed connection you'll never go back to dial up.



rubberneck - direcway is a viable solution if you have no other choice. I have had several clients use direcway and were happy with it compared to the dial up connection they were on. There is a lag on each request but it's nothing like the speed of dial up. Try finding a local direcway provider (you'll have to find one to come out and do the install - you can't install them yourself) and see if you can go to their location and try it out to see if you like it first.

The satellite internet connections work fine as long as you are not trying to use it for business where you need to use a Virtual Private Network Tunnel. . The lag induced by sending a signal up 64,000 miles and then Down 64,000 miles just kills the connection. . Normal internet surfing though is many times faster than dial up. .



The dial up connections that say they are "xx times faster then XXX" are able to do this by what is called caching,, they cache or store a copy of your frequently visited webpages on your local machine and go out and check for updates and only download the changes. . Some of them will also connect to the internet and download your email while you are not using your phone line so that it is ready for you when you decide to check it. . The actual dial up connection isn't really any faster, unless you are using 2 modems and 2 phone lines at the same time but that is another lesson for another day!!

 

[Byershome]

The biggest problem I have with mine is logging into any kind of secure network, banking,e-mail, work and the like, it is really slow. For gaming it is pretty much useless. For just surfing and downloads it is far better than Dial-up. That said, as soon as anything better makes it's way out here we will dump it regardless of the original outlay of cash for the equipment.



"unless you are using 2 modems and 2 phone lines at the same time but that is another lesson for another day!!"



I tried that years ago using the Diamond dual 56k modem and was not impressed at the time.

 

[Joe G.]

I also live where there is no DSL. They have it in town so it will be out here eventually. My provider, inreach, is pretty good. Good customer service. The accellerator provided works well and is adjustable. The spam filter works well and is also adjustable. I have had no problems with excessive use. I do get disconnects but that is because of the phone company. Pretty basic with no messing with the customer like AOL and some other providers.

 

[daveshoe]

Verizon just will not maintain a decent hardline system,and the string they have running between the two tin cans will not work when it is wet.

I would go with DSL if it was available--I am already paying 25 bucks for the second phone line and this crap. If it were not for the TDR and its available dial-up connection,it would take 5 minutes to veiw each post!

One thing I did notice is that the daughter's new computer is much quicker than this old beast-- You could possibly try a newer or different computer and see if that helps. I wonder if I would get a better modem--would it help?

 

[me4osu]

I live in the country with no dsl or cable. We have used these guys for quite a few years. Like they say, "just 10 bucks a month" and no pop-ups or banner ads on their home page.



http://www.ev1.net/english/dialup/numbers.asp

 

[BK]

Netzero had been around for a very long time. I used them back when they were free as a backup. I think they bought out Juno. I haven't used Netzero recently.



AOL is crap. . dump them and run. I've got soo many reasons to hate AOL, and I've never used them.



Basically they are pricing their dialup at prices to drive people away cause they don't want the DU service anymore. They have a great business of selling AOL accounts on top of people's broadband, cause some people truly do not understand that you just don't need AOL once you've dumped their dial up and have broadband, like DSL or Cable.



I had verizon dsl for a while, it worked, when it worked. but lots of lost time due to dropped connections and black outs.

As much as I hate giving more money to the cable company, the service is soo much better than the dsl services.



My dad wanted to save 15bucks a month and went with DSL , despite my warnings.

And I should have just given him the difference so he would get cable. I'm soo tired of talking him through finding out what the connection problem is. . cause he soo impatient when he looses service. And it's always just a black out of service, next morning or so it's back up again.



With all my dsl experience and using it for work I developed a few habits. The major one is that I suggest that you write your long replies in a word processor 1st, then just copy and past when your done, and post the your post.